Hi folks, and welcome to another edition of Box Art Brawl!
Before we get cracking with this week’s brawl, let’s cast our minds back to last week. We looked at Sonic CD for the Sega CD and, surprising no one, the more action packed box art for North America won the vote by a decent margin, bringing in 48%. Europe came in second place with 30%, and the weird, squishy-titled Japanese box art finished with 22%.
This week, we’re going to stick with Sega’s console line and take a look at Castlevania: Bloodlines. Released back in 1994, the game was known in Japan as ‘Vampire Killer’ and in Europe as ‘Castlevania: The New Generation’, while North America took on what would arguably become the game’s most well known title, ‘Bloodlines’.
The game was well received by critics at the time of its release, praising the faster pace and more action-focused gameplay, but criticism was levelled against the visuals, which were regarded as inferior to the SNES title Super Castlevania IV.
Two of our competitiors this week share similar designs for their respective box arts, but we’re going to go with a three-way brawl, if only for the stark difference in game titles.
Be sure to cast your votes in the poll below; but first, let’s check out the box art designs themselves.
North America
Along with its title, the North American box art design is probably the most well known among fans. We see our protagonist in the bottom half of the composition and a whole bunch of nasty creatures surrounding him. The ‘Bloodlines’ title itself is pretty macabre, with blood dripping from its letters to look like something straight out of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps or something! We’re big fans of this one.
Europe
Europe’s ‘New Generation’ design is perhaps a little more ominous, with significantly darker colours and a sinister red tone in the background, with bats flying about and a blood red moon looming in the sky. The characters here are very well designed and their positions within the composition make for a pretty impactful piece of art.
Japan
Japan’s design is more or less the same as Europe’s, except everything has been zoomed in significantly to remove some of the empty black space. The main difference here, of course, is the title itself. We’ve got ‘Vampire Killer’ that looks like it’s been written in blood and it’s a pretty striking; certainly more so than the rather dull ‘New Generation’ title seen on Europe’s cover.
Thanks for voting! We’ll see you next time for another round of the Box Art Brawl.
